Encouraging more people to walk,eel Encouraging more people to walk, wheel and cycle in the Levenmouth area. Barbara Kerr, Susanne Muller and Daniel Prince – Sustrans 1 Table of contents Introduction _____________________________________________________________ 4 Aims and objectives _____________________________________________________ 4 The study area __________________________________________________________ 4 Methods and tools_______________________________________________________ 6 The ISM model _________________________________________________________ 6 Understanding who is in the community _________________________________ 7 Commonplace website ________________________________________________ 7 Community events and consultations ___________________________________ 8 Online survey from SEPA ________________________________________________ 8 COVID19 ______________________________________________________________ 8 Sustrans Communities Team online survey _______________________________ 8 Semi-structured interviews _____________________________________________ 10 Online survey of motorbike users _______________________________________ 10 Results _________________________________________________________________ 10 Black and ethnic minority groups ______________________________________ 18 Discussion and interpretation ____________________________________________ 19 Perceptions of bad behaviour _________________________________________ 19 Friluftsliv – being in nature _____________________________________________ 19 Caring for the area ___________________________________________________ 20 Easy movement ______________________________________________________ 21 Recommendations _____________________________________________________ 22 Appendix 1: Scope of consultation ______________________________________ 23 Appendix 2: ISM categories associated with key themes __________________ 24 Emerging themes according to ISM categories _________________________ 24 Appendix 3: Proposed path layout as of June 2020 _______________________ 27 2 Executive summary Sustrans has been working with SEPA and their partners on the Connectivity Project to improve active travel opportunities in the River Leven area in Fife. The area covered is from Cameron Bridge down to the sea. The Connectivity Project aims to create an award-winning network of paths and cycle ways along a 5km stretch of the river, along with a network of approximately 20km of paths which will weave through and between the local communities of Buckhaven, Methil, Methilhill, Leven and Windygates. This report summarises engagement work in the community that has taken place from late 2019 through to July 2020. The focus of this work was to understand what needs to change in order to make the area more attractive for people to walk, wheel or cycle. Initially engagement was through a range of activities, which included face-to-face contact, visiting groups, attending their events and meetings. However from late March 2020 onwards the consultation moved to using online surveys and remote meetings because of the restrictions imposed by COVID19. The project team has talked to many groups from the area (see appendix 1) who have highlighted barriers and suggested improvements that will encourage more people to use the network. These have led to recommendations around four key aspects: . Enabling people to enjoy the area. E.g. fishing, picnicking, accessing nature . Helping people move through the area. E.g. improved signage and paths . Looking after the area. E.g. a community management plan . Addressing antisocial behaviour. E.g. addressing vandalism or fly-tipping Working with the community is going to be an important ongoing aspect of making future plans work and their input will be needed to develop plans, in particular to address anti-social behaviour, to enable people to enjoy the area and to establish viable plans to look after the area going forward. 3 Introduction The Leven Programme is a regeneration initiative with the environment and people at its heart. It aims to breathe life back into the River Leven and improve the areas surrounding it, making them great places to live, work and visit. Reconnecting people and place is a key focus of the Programme. These plans start with The Connectivity Project, which focuses on improving the 5km stretch of the river from Levenmouth to Cameron Bridge. This will involve creating a network of paths and cycle ways, which will connect the local communities of Buckhaven, Methil, Methilhill, Leven and Windygates. Part of The Connectivity Project is to identify parts of the River Leven route from Cameron Bridge to Levenmouth that need improving, both in terms of access to and along it, as well as its attractiveness as a place to spend time. SEPA has secured money from Places for Everyone to deliver this multi-agency project and as part of the funding package, Sustrans is supporting community engagement and behaviour change. This is initially through understanding what needs to change in order to encourage people to use the area. Aims and objectives The aim of this study is to understand what needs to change to encourage more people to walk, wheel and cycle. This is broken down into three objectives: . Understanding why people do not use the project area for wheeling, walking and cycling. Finding out what needs to happen to encourage more people to wheel, walk and cycle. Suggesting how these changes can be made. The study area The study area concentrates on areas around the Leven River in Fife, from Cameron Bridge down to the river mouth. It includes the former industrial communities of Buckhaven, Methil to the south of the river and the seaside town of Leven to the north. 4 The key demographic and study area information was collated by SYSTRA in their 2019 report: Active Travel Baseline and Behaviour Change Plan for Buckhaven, Methil and Leven, ref: GB01T19C20 June 2019. Their main points about the project area are repeated in the following paragraphs. The area has high levels of households with dependent children (71% c.f. national average of 41%), with the highest proportions in Methil. The area also has a higher than average incidence of bad or very bad health (8% c.f. 6% for Scotland) with a similar lower than average incidence of good health with poor health outcomes exacerbated by drug and alcohol misuse. The area includes a new secondary school, Levenmouth Academy and seven primary schools. However over a third of the population have no qualifications (38% c.f. 27% for Scotland) with areas where the numbers with no qualifications rises to over 60%. Most people in education live within 2 km of their place of education. Economic activity traditionally focused on the docks and on coal mining, both of which have significantly declined. There are local employers such as Diageo’s bottling plant, employing around 1,250 people and the Energy Park Fife where DF Barnes and Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult are based. In addition there are two local hospitals, a distillery and a range of retail businesses that serve the community. 28% of households have no access to a vehicle and rely on active travel or public transport. 46% of people work within 5km of their home. According to the 2011 Census data, 72% of local trips for work are done by car or van. Cycling accounts for less than 1%. 5 Overall, the Leven has areas of serious deprivation (14% of people live in areas within the 5% most deprived areas of Scotland). However, the prevalence of people doing local journeys and the low levels of car ownership suggest that there is plenty of scope for making active travel more accessible. The area around Levenmouth is predominantly made up of people who identify as White Scottish. Compared to Scotland the area is less ethnically diverse. The table below shows results from the most recent census (2011). Levenmouth Fife Scotland White: Scottish 92.5% 85.7% 84.0% White: other 6.1% 11.9% 12.1% Asian 0.9% 1.6% 2.7% Other minority 0.5% 0.8% 1.3% ethnic group Methods and tools The study addresses three questions, outlined in the aims. To understand the questions about barriers and what needs to change we have used the ISM1 model to help sort responses and provide a framework for understanding and categorising responses. The ISM model We have used the ISM model to help understand the different issues that have been highlighted. We have done this by putting them into the 1 www.gov.scot/publications/influencing-behaviours-moving-beyond-individual-user-guide- ism-tool/ 6 Individual, Social and Material categories. Individual: this includes the factors held by the individual that affect the choices and the behaviours they undertake. These include an individual's values, attitudes and skills, as well as the calculations they make before acting, including personal evaluations of costs and benefits. Social: this includes the factors that exist beyond the individual in the social realm, yet shape their behaviours. These influences include understandings that are shared amongst groups, such as social norms and the meanings attached to particular activities, as well as people's networks and relationships, and the institutions that influence how groups of individuals behave. Material: this includes the factors that are 'out there' in the environment and wider world, which both constrain and shape behaviour. These influences include existing 'hard' infrastructures, technologies and regulations, as well as other 'softer' influences such as time and the schedules of everyday